The Knight

Chapter 16. The Western Trader

This here’s Sir Able o’ th’ High Heart,” Pouk explained to the mate of the Western Trader. “Him an’ me’s wantin’ passage to Forcetti.”

The mate touched his forelock to me. “You’d be wantin’ to share a cabin, sir?”

I said I would have to see the cabin first. The cold squall that had come into the harbor to announce autumn had made me pull up the hood of my new cloak already; now a gust of rain wet it, and the Western Trader jerked at her cable, rolling and shuddering to let us know exactly how she felt.

“Foller me, sir.”

The mate turned away, starting down a steep little stair. I told Pouk to go first, because I knew that if I left the open air I was going to be sick. For a minute or two I looked around at the ship—the reeling castles of brightly painted wood at the front and back, the deckhouse, the swaying masts, with long, slanted poles to spread the sails that were bunched around them now, and the rest of it. My face felt hot, and I was glad the wind was cold. I knew I might throw up any minute, and I swore that I would make Pouk clean it up if I did.

And kill him if he would not do it.

“Sir?”

It was him, naturally, looking up from the stairs.

“Trying to keep my bow dry,” I said. I fiddled with the oiled leather bowcase we had gotten for it.

“Th’ cabin’s a mite small,” Pouk said.

It was. With the mate, Pouk, and me in it, there was hardly room to turn around.

“This here’s my bunk, sir.” The mate seated himself on it, giving us a little more space. “Up there’d be yours.”

The upper bunk looked dirty, and emitted a sour smell over and above the reek that seemed to be everywhere under the main deck.

“Captain’s cabin’s right up there,” the mate announced proudly. “‘Cept for that, this here’s the best berth on the ship.”

Pouk had his back to the mate. He waggled one finger and winked.

I said, “Somebody’s been sleeping up here already. Who is it?”

“Our second, sir. Nur’s his name.”

“If I’m going to be taking his bed, I ought to make my bargain with him.” Pouk grinned approval.

“I’ve the say, sir.” The mate sounded angry. “As for bargainin’, there won’t be none. Two—”

I had made up my mind, and I cut him off. “You’re right, we’re not making any kind of deal. I wouldn’t sleep in here if you locked me in. Show me the captain’s cabin.”

“He’d have to do it hisself.” The mate sounded angrier than ever.

“Then let’s go see him.”

There was an awkward silence until I realized that I would have to go out before Pouk and the mate could. I did, bumping my head on the top of the tiny doorway and turning sidewise to get my shoulders through it. The whole affair was awkward enough, and painful enough, that I forgot to be sick for a minute or two.

Back on deck, the mate rapped (timidly, I thought) on the captain’s door while I took long breaths of cold salt air.

“Cap’n?”

There was no answer. I decided the gale had gotten worse, if anything. Cold rain slammed my face, and was very welcome there. “Cap’n, sir?” The mate rapped again, a trifle louder.

“Be a long tunne a’ money,” Pouk whispered.

The sterncastle door opened. I glimpsed a middle-aged man’s dirty face and bleary eyes before it closed again.

“You gotter come back,” the mate announced with great satisfaction. “Come back tomorrer.”

I pushed him to one side and pounded on the door. When the captain opened it, his face red with rage, I shoved him backward and went in.

After the mate’s cabin, this one looked spacious indeed, a good four paces long and three wide, with a ceiling almost high enough and big windows on three sides. I pointed to one and said, “Open that!”

The captain (who was naked) only stared. Pouk hastened to obey.

I said, “I see only one bed. Where will you sleep?”

“You’re a knight?” The captain took trousers from the back of a chair screwed to the floor.

“Right. Sir Able of the High Heart.”

“I doubt it.” The captain sat down on the cabin’s one bed. “I’ve never heard of you.”

“You’d be smart to act as if you had,” I told him. By that time I was really beginning to catch on to the way these people talk.

“You want to travel in my cabin.” He snorted. “That’s what Megister Kerl said.”

“Right again. To Forcetti.”

“If I permitted it,” the captain seemed to weigh each word, “it would cost you seven gold ceptres. Good gold, too. Paid in advance, and not a copper farthing shy of the full seven. You’d sling your hammock over there, and by wind, rain, and sea you’d have it out of my way each morning before breakfast.”

Kerl had come in behind me by that time. He chuckled.

The captain rose and buckled his belt. “Otherwise, I’d teach you, Sir Able of the Shy Fart, how the authority of a captain is to be obeyed. As it is, I won’t let you have it at any price. I give you as much time as it takes to make sail to clear my ship.” From under his mattress he pulled a curved sword of Osterling make. “Or we’ll throw you in the bay.”

I grabbed his wrist with my left hand and got hold of the pommel with my right. Before I could wrench the sword away, a punch from Kerl spun me half around.

The sword came free. I ducked another punch, and hit him in the chest. I still remember the sound of it, like a mallet pounding a tent stake. It gave me a moment to throw the captain’s sword out the window.

As soon as it was gone he was on me, bellowing like a bull. That stopped the first time I hit him. He fell down, and I picked him up and shoved him headfirst out the window, catching hold of an ankle as it crossed the sill.

“Sir Able? Sir Able ...”

I was looking down at the captain. A jokester whitecap had just washed his head. “You wouldn’t do this if you were me, Pouk? I’m helping him out. He was knocked cold, and the water will bring him back and make him feel better.”

“I got his knife, Sir Able. Mate’s, I mean. Had it in his belt, he did. Likely you didn’t notice, sir.”

“Sure I did.” I took the knife and glanced at it. “Give it back to him. It’s his.” Pouk looked dubious. “Into th’ drink might be better, sir. He’s havin’ trouble gettin’ his breath, sir, only it won’t last.”

“He didn’t try to stab me with it,” I told Pouk, “so I’ll let him keep it.”

“Put it in your back, sir, like as not.”

Kerl gasped, “N-No.”

“We’ve got his word, Pouk.” I took another look at the captain, who had started waving his arms and sputtering. A high-speed roll cracked his head against the side. “His word is good enough for us.”

I looked around at the mate. “Megister Kerl.”

Still gasping, Kerl contrived to say, “Aye, sir?”

“My baggage is out there where Pouk unloaded it. The boatman’s there, too, waiting for his money. Pay him, and help Pouk carry it in here.”

“Sir—aye aye, sir.”

Pouk was already out the cabin door. Kerl struggled to his feet and followed him.

When it had shut behind them, I pulled in the captain. “Get up,” I told him. “I might have to hit you again.”

He tried and fell down. I picked him up and plumped him down on the table. “Can you talk?”

“I’m all right. Just dizzy. It’ll pass off.”

“We’d better settle this before those two come back,” I told him. “I’m going to sleep in here, alone, until we get to Duke Marder’s city.”

He muttered, “Aye, sir.”

“That’s another thing. Don’t say sir to me. I’ve let Pouk do it, and just now your mate did it too. But you’re going to say yes, Sir Able. Every now and then you’d better say yes, Sir Able of the High Heart. When you do it, I’m going to listen really hard to the last two words.” He did not answer, so I said, “Make it plain you understand me, or you’re going out that window again.”

“Aye aye, Sir Able of the High Heart.” The captain straightened up. “I understand you perfectly, Sir Able of the High Heart.”

“Swell. I’ll pay you three ceptres for this room when we get to Forcetti. That’s if I get the best food you’ve got, and you and your men treat me the way a knight ought to be treated. Make it clear you understand all that, too.”

“Aye, Sir Able of the High Heart.” Still shaky, he got up, holding on to the little table with both hands. It was screwed to the floor, like just about everything else. “I understand you perfectly, Sir Able of the High Heart.”

“If the food’s not good, or you and your crew call me names behind my back, I’m going to start knocking money off those three ceptres. I’ll decide how much, and—”

There was a tap on the door.

“Just a minute!”

I turned back to the captain. “Do you understand what I’ve been telling you? About my deductions? Make it clear.”

“I do, Sir Able of the High Heart. You can count on me, Sir Able.”

“We’ll see.” I was feeling sicker than ever and felt like I was sure to chuck. “I’m going to move you out of here right now. Get all your stuff together—that means your clothes and personal things. Leave those blankets. Once you’re out, there won’t be anything to stop you from getting your crew together and giving out every kind of knife and stick you can find.”

He looked scared, and I was glad to see it.

“Only remember this. It won’t be enough to tell them to jump me. You’ll have to get out in front.” I opened the door. “Now beat it.”

When Pouk and Kerl had brought my baggage, I chased them out too, pushing Pouk—he wanted to talk—right out the door and sliding the square iron bolt into the socket. After that I was sick out the window, but when it was over and I had cleaned up, I felt better than I had since I got into the big rowboat that had ferried us out to the Western Trader.

Before I go on, I ought to tell you a lot about boats and ships (which are different from boats, although I did not understand that then) and the coasting trade, and the high-sea trade. But the truth is that I do not know a lot about those things. The Western Trader was a big ship to them; only the biggest had three masts. In the summer it went west, just like its name said, and traded among the islands there. But in winter it just traded along the coast of Celidon, so it could duck into a port whenever the weather got too bad, and it tried to trade south.

The Osterlings were to our east, but they followed the coast south, west, and north, murdering and stealing. Duke Indign had tried to stop them, but they had killed him, and pulled down his castle. With him gone, they had looted and burned most of Irringsmouth.